


Only Scared Cuz I Care

by because-were-family (celestewritesoccasionally)



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, but speed version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28377054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestewritesoccasionally/pseuds/because-were-family
Summary: Logan isn't happy with his new work partner. Rivalry turned romance ensues.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders
Comments: 10
Kudos: 46
Collections: Sanders Sides 2020 Gift Exchange





	Only Scared Cuz I Care

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy your gift, Quill! This was lots of fun to write, even if it didn't turn out as long as i wanted it to be! I might do an epilogue/part 2 at some point, though, I've become invested in this universe. Happy holidays, everyone!

Logan tapped his fingers against the desk as he waited. Professor Anguis had gone to get the paperwork. Hopefully everything would work out...

Logan heard voices outside the office, then the door creaked open. He sat up straight and looked over his shoulder to see Professor Anguis...and another student.

_ Remus _ .

Remus was, frankly, a pain in the ass. He was always talking out of turn in class, and really just being a general nuisance. But, somehow, Professor Anguis had taken a liking to him. Remus was consistently getting good grades and special opportunities, and was Logan's biggest competition in the class.

Remus was talking loudly, and Logan resisted the urge to cover his ears, instead clenching his fists under the table.

Professor Anguis took the chair across the desk, and Remus sat next to Logan, a little too close for Logan's comfort.

"So, Logan," The professor began.

Logan nodded, looking up.

"I went out to get your paperwork, but I ran into Remus. He expressed interest in the same work study project,"

Logan steeled himself for rejection, trying to ingrain into his head that he would not cry here.

"I've looked over both your applications and come to a decision,"

Logan peeked to the side to see Remus's face. Remus was smiling, but it was the kind of fragile, fake smile that Logan was all too familiar with. Maybe Remus wasn't doing as well as Logan thought... 

"I'd like to pair you two up on the project,"

Logan's jaw dropped. He couldn't work with Remus!

Remus was bouncing up and down excitedly.

"I think it will be good for you two to work together, seeing as you're both generally very independent students, and both of you did have very compelling applications,"

Logan nodded a little, hoping he and Remus could alternate research times, and that he wouldn't have to deal with him that much.

"That's everything I need from you two right now, I'll email you both about setting up your first session,"

Logan nodded, gathering his papers up.

Remus smiled and jumped up, calling out a 'Bye Jay!' before whirling out of the room.

Logan thanked the professor in a much calmer manner, before standing and exiting the room.

He shoved the papers in his bag, then started the walk across campus.

He didn't realize, however, that he was being followed, until there was a voice right in his ear.

"Hey Lolo! How ya' doin'?"

Logan flushed at the nickname, swiveling to face Remus. "I am satisfactory, how are you?"

"Better now that you're here!" Remus winked, in an over the top matter, and Logan really couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a joke or not.

"Can I help you?"

"So, um, I was thinking, since we're gonna be working together, we should trade numbers?" Remus sounded genuinely shy.

"Okay...sure,"

Remus deflated a little, but handed Logan a little slip of paper, which he had apparently prepared.

"I'll um, see you, bye!" 

Remus was gone before Logan could get in another word.

Logan shrugged off the encounter, slipping the paper into the outer pocket of his bag, and kept walking towards his dorm. He dropped his bag on his bed when he got inside.

"Hello, Virgil, you're back from class early,"

Virgil looked up from where they were sitting on their bed. "Oh, yeah, got excused early...did you get the job?"

Logan sighed, resting his head in his hands. "Yeah…"

"I-I'm sorry, but why is that a bad thing?"

"I have to work with  _ Remus _ ,"

Virgil frowned. "You mean that hot guy who is quite possibly the only student in this university as smart as you? Still not seeing the problem."

"He's just so… _ infuriating _ ,"

"Mhm, sure," Virgil plucked the piece of paper from Logan's bag. "So infuriating that you got his number?"

Logan blushed, hating that Virgil somehow knew his feelings better than he did.

"So, what have you texted him?"

Logan shrugged. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"He gave it to me for work, why would I text him without a reason?"

"For work?"

"Yes, that is what he said,"

"And you believed that?"

"Yes…?"

"You're hopeless!"

"I'm aware," Logan said dryly.

"Sorry, just...look at this!" Virgil shoved the note into Logan's hands.

Logan looked at it.

Remus's number was scrawled across the top of the paper. Below that was written. "Text me ;) xoxo,"

"I can...see the implication this gives off, but you know him, he flirts with everyone,"

"Yeah, especially hot guys with the same interests as him who he'd love to take out on a date," Virgil said teasingly.

Logan blushed. "I'm…sure he doesn't think that,"

"Mmm, yeah, sure,"

"He  _ doesn't _ ," 

"You wanna bet?"

"Gambling is highly irresponsible, Virgil,"

"You only say that cuz you know you'd lose,"

Logan groaned. "Enoughhhhh,"

"Fine. How do you feel about Remus?"

"I-I don't know," Logan flopped back against the bed.

"That's okay. Just...think about it. And you should text him,"

Logan sighed. "Okay. Thanks, Vi,"

"Anytime, Lo," Virgil stood up, stretching. "Patton and I are gonna hang out, remember to get something to eat, and you better have your pants on when I get home."

"Have I ever not?"

Virgil shrugged. "Just making sure. See ya'," He gave Logan a two fingered salute, leaving the room.

Logan stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, before reluctantly pulling out his phone.

To: Remus 

Hello.

Patton had been trying to convince Remus to give Logan his number for  _ months. _

They had first discussed the topic a month into the school year, on one of those nights where neither of them could sleep, so they traded half delirious conversation between their bunks.

"I'm telling you, you should ask him out!"

"What's the point? The only way he'll say yes is out of pity."

"Remus…" Patton had fixed him with that 'don't you say that about my friend' look.

"What, it's true! Besides, he's so uptight, I bet he's not even interested in dating,"

"Virgil says he's really nice, once you get to know him,"

"Yeah, well, Virgil isn't me."

They'd dropped the topic, but it would occasionally come back up when Patton caught Remus staring at Logan from across the room, or at the parties they attended where secrets couldn't be kept.

Then, the opportunity presented itself. So Remus hurried out of the office, scribbling down his message on a scrap of notebook paper, and going to wait in the courtyard and talk himself into following through.

It hadn’t gone...ideally. But Logan was probably just busy, right? Granted, he was always too busy for Remus…

Remus shook the thought off, rushing back towards his dorm room.

Patton looked up when the door slammed open.

“Patton Patton guess what?!”

Patton laughed softly. “What?”

“Well, one of my teachers had a work study job available, so I applied, cuz y’know, and guess who I get to work with?” Remus vibrated where he was standing.

“Logan?”

Remus pouted. “How did you know?”

“You had the same look that you always do when talking about him.”   
Remus blushed.

Patton smiled. “You should tell him how you feel, Remus.”

“Pat, y’know I can’t do that.”

"Why not? You're not usually shy about that kinda stuff..."

Remus sighed, his expression unreadable. "It's- it's different."

"How so?"

"Cuz...I actually care what he thinks of me," Remus said quietly.

Later that week, Logan headed to the science lab to get some work done on their project. He had confirmed the time with Remus, in a conversation that was somehow even more awkward than talking out loud.

He unlocked the lab door, a little excited at the fact that he had a key now! He found the sheet of instructions Professor Anguis had left them, and got to work.

He set up the experiments, and pulled out a sheet of notebook paper to jot down observations.

Logan startled a little when the door opened. “Oh, hi, Remus, um…”

“Sorry I’m late,” Remus looked like he was about to say something else, but cut himself off.

“It’s alright. Do you wanna transcribe the notes I’ve made so far?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “What, am I your secretary now? I thought this was my project too!”

“Somebody has to type them up to submit,” Logan shrugged.

“Fuck you,”

“Love you too,” Logan said, smiling, before realizing what he just said. He flushed dark red. “Sorry, sorry, I say that to Virgil a lot, I guess it was just a force of habit, I-I’m sorry,”

“Hey, Logan,” Remus steps closer, concerned. “It’s okay, I’m not mad,”

Logan shook his head quickly, “No, no, I- I’m sorry…”

Remus hesitated for a moment. “Did…did you mean it?”

Logan refused to meet Remus’s eyes. “I-I-”   
“It just…seems like you care a lot about what I think, so, um, if that…if that means something…?”

“What would that mean?” Logan said, a touch sharply.

Remus flinched slightly. “Nevermind…”

“We should get back to work,” Logan murmured.

“Yeah…”

They worked in tense silence for the next hour, observing the various experiments, and avoiding eye contact with one another.

Logan glanced around the lab. “I think that’s everything we need to do,”

Remus nodded quickly, and started cleaning up.

Logan finished his area first, and glanced over the notes Remus had made. “Remus...what do you mean by this?”   
Remus glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, there was a discrepancy in the data set, I just jotted down a little theory I had, it’s not important,”

Logan squinted at the paper. “Explain it to me,”

“Well, I know we’re just looking at the effects of these enzymes, but, well, based on the way the bacteria colony behaves, it suggests some sort of collective consciousness…”

“Remus...that’s, that’s genius!” Logan scanned Remus’s recordings. “Their behavior does suggest some sort of decision making process, determining what substances in the petri dish to attack…”

“Which of course, makes our side by side comparison worthless, cuz the bacteria preferentially chose substance b over substance a, instead of consuming them equally as we wanted, but it means that there’s gotta be an explanation for why they deviated to substance b!”   
“That’s really interesting, Remus,”   
“I...I proved that our research was essentially worthless...” Remus looked down, far too familiar with his ideas being unappreciated.   
“But you figured out  _ why _ ! And of course it’s gonna be worthless if we’re working with something with a higher level of sentience than we anticipated, we just have to figure out how to alter the experiment. And devise some new ones for your hypothesis!”

“You really think so?” Remus looked up at him.

“Yeah, you should give this to Professor Anguis,”

“Okay…”

“Um…” Logan hesitated for a moment, tidying up some papers.

“Yeah?”

“I was, um, wondering, if you wanna get dinner with me?” Logan didn’t know what pushed him to ask, really, but Remus had seemed so vulnerable, the way he reacted to Logan’s praise...it made Logan’s heart break, a little, but it also made Logan fall unbelievably further in love with him.  _ Love _ . That’s what this was, wasn’t it? The same protective care he felt for Virgil, the same fluttery feeling he’d get whenever Virgil teased him about his crush. Logan had no idea how he’d developed this feeling for the man he deemed so insufferable.

But when Remus beamed, making a high pitched noise in the back of his throat, Logan found he didn’t regret any of it.

Logan tilted his head, hoping to get a clear yes.

Remus waved his hands a little, finally regaining his composure enough to speak. “Yes please,”

Logan chuckled softly.

“Um, like, right now, or when?”   
“Whenever you’d like,”

“Then now would be good!”

“Where would you like to go?”

“Um, anywhere is good, I mean, it’s you, you could heat up a frozen pizza and I’d be ecstatic,”

Logan blushed, looking down.

Remus frowned, back tracking. “Sorry, I, I know I come on a little strong, I just, I  _ really _ want this,”

“I really want this too…”   
“You do?”

“I do. I’m, sorry I’m so terrible at feelings, I should have treated you better. And I’d like to do whatever I can to make up for it,”

“Whatever you can?”

“Yes, that is what I said,”   
“Kiss me?”

Logan blushed, his brain short circuiting. “I-”   
“You don’t have to,”   
“I want to,” Logan wrapped his arms around Remus.

Remus smiled, leaning forward to press his lips to Logan’s.

It was a little awkward, at first, neither of them had much experience in the way of kissing. Logan pulled away after a moment, his cheeks even redder.

He cleared his throat. “That was um- Nice,”

Remus beamed, bouncing a little.

“Dinner now?”

“Dinner,” Remus intertwined their fingers, and they walked out into the night.

The next day, Professor Anguis went to confront them about leaving the lab half a mess, but when he found them holding hands, trading soft remarks, he found he really couldn’t be anything but glad that his two star students were finally getting along.


End file.
